Of Bone and Pyre

[Delexos]

All around him was chaos, ancient sheets of vellum lay sprawled haphazardly here and there across the old oaken floor boards, several tomes lay open across rustled bed sheets; words of ancient lore and forgotten knowledge staring up at the darkened ceiling to be observed by nothing more than a disinterested spider as it sat in a dusty corner of the darkened room awaiting it's next meal. The only source of illumination was a single candle, by now it had already burned low, rolls and bubbles of dribbly wax had solidified upon the desk top and resembled something that might, perhaps, ooze towards you in a desolate crypt. The lack of illumination, however, was of little concern for the individual who we now find sat at the desk poring over a barely legible manuscript, two eyes, like the glowing coals of a blacksmith's forge moved from left to right, then right to left; down and up, trying to comprehend the jumble of information laid out before him.


“Blast and damnation!”, the individual cursed loudly and reached up to scratch at the band of material that secured the hat firmly to his brow. The irritation of the fabric which was causing him more than a little discomfort had done nothing to help his concentration, those glowing eyes turned from the desk to peer out of the grime covered window of his room, this did nothing to lighten his mood, thick bands of white, edged the frosted glass and once again a blizzard blew hard through the streets of Aquor. “No naked flames indeed!”, he spat at the window and watched the spittle, spatter and sizzle against the glass.


It had been a trying few months for the flame headed creature, his temporary home and base of operations had been invaded by the worst kind of parasite imaginable, Aurilites. It seemed as though the Ice bitch had finally decided to make the rest of the valley as miserable as she was, even now her minions romped across the town attempting to bully and cajole the populace into submission to the extent of ripping doors from their hinges to let the freezing touch of winter pervade every nook and cranny. In a feeble attempt to avoid the gave of the frozen one he had taken to wearing a hat, enchanted against the natural flames produced by his head. He sniffed at this thought and then grinned a little sheepishly, he had to admit that this was not the exact truth of the matter, in fact he had taken to wearing hats for a while before Auril had made her move, however when the Ice maiden had rampaged across Aquor it led itself nicely to act as a perfect reason for the sudden change in attire. The real reason for updating his wardrobe was directly tied to the mess now apparent in his room. Turning his attention away from the, now cooled and frozen spit, he began to rifle through a stack of paper that had been piled high against the side of his desk.


“Why in the hells do they have to make this so bloody difficult?”, the sentiment was not lost upon the current occupants in the fourth room of the lodgings known as the Kulkir's Rest Inn, with perhaps the single exception of the disinterested spider that was in the process of wrapping a captured moth within a silky cocoon. In fact he had only just finished his sentence when a flutter of activity exploded on the bed accompanied by the aggravated chattering of bone on bone. “Difficult? You want to moan about difficulty just try deciphering this mad script in the dark with out the use of opposable thumbs!”. The fire Genasi sighed inwardly and looked over at the bed, he had almost forgotten about his 'companion', almost but not quite. Taking the tone of a parent attempting to explain a concept to a child, the flame headed man retorted. “Look Yorick, I have lost count of how many times we have to go over this, we had a deal. You help me reveal the true nature of that infernal tome, assist me with getting the power and position that I need in order to avoid the reach of those that would pull me back down below, and in return.”, his sentence was cut short by the chattering of teeth as Yorick finished off the statement in it's own otherworldly voice. “you will help me acquire a body 'when the time is right', I get it I get it.” Yorick had placed emphasis on the part about the time being right because he had soon come to realise that what may have looked like an appropriate time to one person might not necessarily be considered the right time to another.


“You know.” Yorick continued in a somewhat agitated tone. “I am pretty sure that right time was back when I unlocked that portal back down to the hells, I mean you met dear old mother didn't you? And didn't that in turn lead to you reaching an entirely new level of power?” the unmistakeable hint of a whine was developing in the raspy voice of Ignus' pet skull. “I am not going to have this conversation again, that constituted the initial move to start me along the path I needed to travel, you opened a door but your task is much more involved, unless of course you actually wanted to be attached to something like a giant rat, that is certainly one way to get you the mobility you so desperately crave.”, if it were possible the bleached skull would have turned a shade whiter at the thought of ending up as part of a giant rat, instead Yorick gnashed it's teeth at Ignus and then settled down.


The snow outside had thickened, blanketing everything around in a thick field of white silence, Ignus was grateful for his heritage, he had always known that he shared traces of blood with the ancient Efreeti masters of Calimshan, but to discover that he was the product of a union between a fire blooded Genasi father and an Erinyes mother had only served to enhance his already potent belief that he was a superior specimen in comparison to those who also dwelt within the Sundren valley, a result of this union of blood meant that his internal fire burned so bright and with such ferocious heat that he could stand in the middle of a blizzard, wearing nothing but a smile and still come out laughing, a fact that he was more than happy to flaunt in front of the ice queens slaves.


Stretching his arms wide and letting out a long yawn he slowly pushed himself away from the rickety writing desk and plodded over to the bed, laden as it was with numerous tomes of lore both Arcane and Divine, in the centre of the bed, next to Yorick the eternally pessimistic talking skull was the most annoying magical tome Ignus had ever had the misfortune of acquiring, to the eyes of all but a few it appeared to be nothing more than a book detailing the principles and practices of advanced conjuration, however that was nothing more than a clever ruse, a façade to help disguise it's true nature, those in possession of fiendish blood would see it for what it truly was. In it's true form the book resembled a dusty old collection of parchments each page seemingly made from a different type of material, some pages were exquisite vellum, edged in gold relief, while others seemed more akin to cured and hardened strips of skin, further page turning would reveal giant leaves, pressed and fixed to the book's spine all of which were encased in a leather like binding that upon closer inspection seemed to be more like a collection of fine strands of an onyx coloured material, woven together to form the protective cover. If this were not odd enough already the words that had been scrawled upon the many different pages seemed intent to avoid the readers gaze, sentences would jump aside, mix with one another, or simply travel to a different page entirely when they felt Ignus' hungry gaze upon them.

[Delexos]

“Tell me you have some new insight to share with me Yorick, this eternal searching is playing havoc with my social schedule, I cannot remain cramped up in here all the time, there are busty maidens to woo and wild oats to sow, you know what I mean?” Ignus then waggled his eyebrows at the skull and gave a sly smile. Once again the chattering of teeth indicated that he had hit a sore spot, the Skull was unable to give facial expression but Ignus knew that right now Yoricks' brow would be creasing if only it had the muscle and skin to do so.


“Oh nice, very nice. I sit here slaving away, trying to find you answers to questions that even you do not fully understand, and all you can do is think about tits. Marvellous, you might as well just grind me up into bone meal and have done with it.” Yorick was sulking, Ignus knew that well enough, in fact the miserable skull seemed to run on negative emotions, not that Ignus could blame it, the idea of having a level of sentience but no motor functions other than to snap it's jaw was something the Fire Genasi did not like to dwell upon too often.


“Look I am most deeply and humbly sorry, tell you what, you help me with this and I will see if I can dig up some old wench from the Sestran graveyard, give you something to pass the time with, what do you say?”, Ignus grinned once more, he could not help poking fun at the skull, Yorick simply made it far too easy to do so. But the moment of levity was lost a moment later when a section of the snow that had been piling up on the roof of the Enclave managed to dislodge itself and tumbled down past his dirty window.


“Seriously, what have you got?”, he asked the skull once more, a note of urgency in his voice now. For his part, Yorick, had never really liked Ignus all that much, after all it was Ignus that had removed him from the last body he had been able to get himself attached to. Of course this was partly his own fault for agreeing to be stuck on the neck of a random skeleton in the Necropolis, in hindsight it was probably not the best of ideas to go wandering around the cemetery with all the mindless undead, especially not when he had foolishly decided to pretend to be one of them. All the same, Yorick could not help but feel as though Ignus was milking this partnership for all it was worth.


“I don't know what you want me to say.”moaned the skull in that, oh so familiar, hollow voice. “It is exactly the same as I told you before, it's definitely the journal and ramblings of another one of your kind.” Yorick noted the raised eyebrows and quickly pushed on with his explanation. “Not the flaming head side of 'your kind, I mean the 'giving away your soul for power' aspect of what you are, and YES”, he quickly added in an exasperated voice. “I am very much aware that you 'did not choose this' and that you were born to it, blah blah blah, do you have any idea how many times you go on an d on about that little fact? Look at me, I'm a bloody skull, do you honestly think I care how hard done to you think you are? Well I don't, so give it a rest.” Yorick gave his impression of a disgruntled employee and then when he had settled down once more, he continued his explanation.


“As I was saying, this book belonged to one of your kind, clever bit of illusion work on it if I do say so myself, looks like a regular book to normal folk, and even those of you with the blood cant get a proper reading on it, looks like whatever methods they used to make this thing, it was designed to allow easy reading only to the one that wrote it, keeping trade secrets safe or something I suppose.” Yorick gave a mental shrug and then continued, Ignus however simply stood there nodding his head, so far it all seemed to be pretty much what he had known already.


The grey, snow laden sky was turning a darker shade of bluish purple, much like a bad bruise as the sun began it;s decent over the horizon, another day wasted was the thought coursing through Ignus' mind as he slowly turned his attention from the skull to the window once more before giving up the hope of getting out and about tonight. He pushed aside a clump of papers from the bed and settled down next to the skull that had been continuing it's lecture despite the obvious lack of focus from the Warlock opposite it.


“...So that is why I cannot seem to make any further progress you see? Simply put, your predecessor make certain references to the procedure required to open the 'inner eye' and by the way I do wish you had waited to get ALL the facts before you rushed off to carve a three inch hole into your own skull, because the problem is that after the owner of this book did that, they didn't get much further, now don't go asking my why because I do not know, all I know is that the journal hints at a number of theories that lead me to believe that carving the hole is the first part of some ritual, yeah it helps you out, lets you see stuff that would rather not be seen, but that isn't all there is to it, you understand? It looks to me as though the last berk to try this was looking at two main avenues of inquiry, on the one hand the arcane side and the other the divine.”


Ignus flopped back onto the bed and let out a moan, again he began rubbing the band of material that fastened the hat over his very obvious 'third eye'. “You know I don't truck with gods, not since I found out that for my entire life it was not Kossuth granting me powers, but my own bloody mother, some barely dressed devil harlot, you know what that sort of thing does to a young man's mind?”


“She was pretty hot though”, Yorick interjected.

“That's my damned mother you are talking about, unless you want to find yourself tied to a rock and dropped in the ocean, i'd remember my place if I were you” Ignus snapped back in return, this seemed to shut the skull up for a moment before he tried to bring things back on track.


“Alright, enough, I get it. Look, like it or not it seems that there are two ways to proceed, the divine path to try and open the limits of the eye's sight even further, or the arcane path to use the path from the eye to your brain, in which case you are looking at enhancing the brains natural powers itself, focusing them through the eye by way of, well some sort of medium, with the end result of effecting the world around you.”


Silence descended upon the room, save for the occasional dripping of water through the ceiling above,the gentle sputtering of the dying candle flame, and the constantly grating sound of Yorick grinding it's teeth in thought. Ignus looked at the desk and the fading light. “I know, either way I have to get this hole covered, I have a hard enough time as it is when it comes to avoiding suspicion simply because of what I am, and people only think I am half human and half fire elemental, if they knew the reality, well lets just say it would become much more complicated.”, The warlock began to tap his bottom lip in thought. “I have asked for the aid of a couple of individuals in the Valley, one a master of the arcane, the other a master of the divine, whatever it was that happened to the owner of that blasted book, I am certainly not going to fall foul of it myself, I am far too important to go to waste. So far they have given me quite a bit to work with, I am certain it is only a matter of time before all this research”, he cast his arms out wide to encompass the myriad of open books and torn pages scattered around him, "Pays off and I take that next step, the master Arcanist thinks some sort of gemstone would make the perfect focal object to fuse into the eye, but what type of gen is still a mystery."


If Yorick had been capable of a sideways glance at the burning man, he would have done so, hubris often lead men to their downfall, but the skull doubted that this one could fall much further. “And how goes the hunt? You still at least appear to have your brain, which is a good sign at least.”


At these words Ignus' brow creased. “It isn't easy, not by a long shot, but then where would be the sense of achievement if it was easy? No, so far, I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to capture a live specimen, but when it comes to using the powers of the mind, I doubt there is anyone or anything that can stand on a par with that creature in the bottom of those old ruins, if only I could find out what made it tick, how it was able to control so many thralls, i'm sure I would have my answer.”


The skull remained silent for a long time before giving it's reply. “But capturing an Illithid, and doing so while it still lives? I don't know Iggy, I'm pretty sure that's closer to suicide than most people would wish to get.”


The eyes of the Genasi burned brighter now as the candle finally gave out it's last flicker of life and finally drowned in it's own pool of liquid wax. “I'm not most people Yorick, and you know what is coming after me, I don't think I exactly have much left to lose.”